Saturday, August 02, 2008

Alkmaar Cheese Market

Oma is here visiting, so Markus took Friday off and we headed to see the Alkmaar Cheese Market. We had been warned that it was very cheesy (I'm sure that pun was intended), but we risked it anyway. We are, after all, about to leave Holland and the cheese market isn't something you will see anywhere else. We hadn't been before because it is only for a few hours each Friday morning, and Alkmaar is over an hour's drive away (that's far by Dutch standards!). Verdict: worth it, if only to check it off the touristy to-do list. It's cute and fun and completely overrun with tourists, so we fought our way through the hoards just enough to take this photo

and then move on. The parts of Alkmaar immediately surrounding the cheese market are lovely. The architecture has been preserved beautifully for the sake of all the tourists who flock there, and we appreciated it. Of course, it had escaped my attention before we left the house that the camera battery was nearly empty, so this one cheese market photo is it for the day. We had lovely weather, though. That cold spell I was praying for CAME! I am so happeee. The girls are sleeping. Hooray!